Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- 20 More Questions

It’s Saturday Night Genealogy Fun! Randy Seaver of Genea-Musing has another challenge for us:

Here is your assignment if you choose to play along (cue the Mission Impossible music, please!):

1)  Ellen Thompson-Jennings wrote 20 More Questions About Your Ancestors and Maybe A Few About You this week and Linda Stufflebean thought it would be a great SNGF challenge.  I agree!

2)  Copy the questions from Ellen's post or from my post below, and insert your own replies.  Be sure to comment on Ellen's blog so she knows you wrote about it.

3)  Tell us in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or on Facebook or Google+.  Please leave a comment on this post with a link to your post.

Q1:   Why do you love doing genealogy/family history?

A1:   I loved researching in school, learning about new things, but I never liked writing the paper. I’ve learned that writing the paper is just as important.

Q2:  How far have you traveled to research an ancestor?

A2:  This summer we went to Cornwall and I did some unplanned research there.  

Q3:  What do you think your favorite ancestor would think of our lives today?

A3:  My favorite ancestor is Anna M. Sullivan Hork, my grandmother. I think she would be amazed by the advanced technology used in schools. She taught in a one-room school house in Napa.

Q4:  What do you think that your ancestor would like/dislike?

A4:  I think that she would like that medicine has advanced quite a bit, allowing people to live longer. She would not like the decisiveness of politics today.

Q5:  What was the most unusual cause of death that you’ve found?

A5:  Martin Gleeson died from an infection due to a piece of lumber that was imbedded in his leg. If only there had been antibiotics then.

Q6:  Which ancestor had the most unusual occupation?

A6:  My husband has a collateral ancestor who was once mayor of Cincinnati and later governor of Ohio. There were also a couple of actors and actresses.

Q7:  Have you ever gone to where your ancestor lived and it felt like home even if you’ve never been there before?

A7:  Yes. I visited Conway, Arkansas, and I really loved the small town.

Q8:  Do you have a distant ancestor  (several generations back) that looks like someone in the family?

A8:  One of my great-great aunts looks like my sister. 

Q9:  What is the oldest ancestral photo that you have?

A9:  I have a couple of really old photos of either the Gleeson or Tierney family members in Canada—probably in the 1860s or 1870s.

Q10:  Did you have an ancestor that had an arranged marriage?

A10:  Not that I know of.

Q11:  If you could live in the time period of one of your ancestors what year would it be? Where would it be?

A11:  About the 1860s in Titus Co, Texas. I would like to ask my 3X great-grandparents, Samuel Johnston and Elizabeth McCormack where they was born in South Carolina, where in Alabama the children were born, and who their parents were.

Q12:  Which ancestor was married the most times?

A12:  I haven’t found anyone who was married more than two times.

Q13:  If you’ve tested your DNA what was the biggest ethnicity surprise?

A13:  That I had no Native American ancestry and neither did my grandmother.

Q14:  Did you have a female ancestor that was different or unusual from other females from that time period?

A14:  My great-great aunt, Elizabeth Gleeson, was pretty independent, who never married, but traveled a bit—even going to the gold rush in Alaska.

Q15:  Did your ancestor go through a hardship that you don’t know how they managed?

A15:  My great-grandfather lost his wife while having young children at home. He didn’t remarry until later in life. My great-aunt talked about how hard it was to grow up without a mother.

Q16:  How often do you research? Are you a genealogy addict?

A16:  I try to do some genealogy every single day—either research, reading, or writing. When I’m not at my computer, I think about genealogy.

Q17:  Do you have someone in your family that will take over the family history?

A17:  No. I might have to write lots of books.

Q18:  Have you had a genealogy surprise? What was it?

A18:  No really.

Q19:  Are you a storyteller? What’s your favorite family story?

A19:  No, I tend to be too literal and write like a technical writer. I need an editor to help make it more like a story.

Q20:  What was your greatest genealogy discovery?

A20:  There is no one great discovery. I enjoy each new discovery as I learn more about my family.  

Copyright © 2018 by Lisa Suzanne Gorrell, My Trails into the Past. All Rights Reserved.